Perfect Memory
by WayLowHalo
Summary: Song-fic! Max dies and Fang grieves.


_Author's Note: Hello all! This is my first ever song fic! It's also my first ever Maximum Ride fic, so this is all very exciting! The lines that are italized and centered are song lyrics from the song 'Perfect Memory'. A great song, and if you haven't heard it you should definately You Tube it! _

_**Disclaimer**: Maximum Ride, sadly, does not belong to me. That's all James Patterson. The song Perfect Memory does not belong to me either. Remy Zero is the lucky owner of that. I do, however, own all of the Maximum Ride books, that has to count for something, right?_

_So without further ado..._

**Perfect Memory**

_Remember how they always seemed to know  
__We had the forest in our eyes  
__But the earth was in our clothes  
__And they thought we'd fall  
__Not at all_

She had always seemed so strong to him. So tough. Max the Invincible. Maximum Ride. It had never even occurred to him that something could happen to her.

Not to Max.

To just about anyone else, sure, but not to Max.

_So look back on the treasured days  
__We were young in a world that was so tired  
__Though it's not what we wanted before  
__Even the saints had to crawl from the floor_

But something had happened to Max. Something bad. And she had fallen.

It had seemed to take her an age to fall.

Fang sighed. He dreamt about it at nights. He would wake up and he would see her falling through the sky and he would hear the BANG of the gun and feel the despair all over again. Such poignant despair.

_Summers when the money was gone you'd sing  
__All your little songs  
__That meant everything to me_

She had been so young. Much too young for a lot of what had happened to her.

She had only been fourteen, there should have been someone taking care of her but instead she'd had to take care of herself and five others besides. Max had been as good as a mother to them, as close as any of them had ever come.

There were times when Fang allowed himself to remember being at the school. The nights there, dreading what would come in the morning, were so long, hearing the little ones sniffling in their cages, and Max had sung to them.

He had never told her just how much those songs had meant to him as well as to the little ones. Had never told her how many nights he had drifted off to sleep to her voice.

_And I'll remember you  
__And the things that we used to do  
__And the things that we used to say  
__I'll remember you  
__That way_

His beloved Max. His whole life consisted of memories of her.

And now that was all he would ever have.

Memories.

_Remember how they tried to hold you down  
__And we climbed those towers  
__And looked down upon our town  
__And everything you hoped would last  
__Just always becomes your past (it hurts)  
__Summers when the money was gone you'd sing  
__All your little songs that meant everything to me_

It's not like this world had ever given Max anything. Had ever given any of them anything, except each other.

And then the best of them was taken away.

Such a senseless way to die.

They had been flying with the hawks again.

They had never even seen it coming.

Poachers. Poachers after the damn hawks. The bullet hit Max instead.

Fang clenched his teeth, remembering. Max's face had shown nothing but shock and for a moment everything had seemed to freeze, and then Max had started to fall.

_And I'll remember you  
__And the things that we used to do  
__And the things that we used to say  
__I'll remember you  
__Always_

Fang gulped, seeing it all again in his mind's eye, remembering how he dove after her, shouting for the flock to find cover, and he had caught her before she fell.

Max had looked at him then, her brown eyes huge and her mouth working, trying to speak.

"Take care… of the… flock," she had gasped out, her fingers clutching at his shirt and he had felt his world crumbling.

_But then this world slipped through my fingers  
__And even the sun seemed tired  
__I still cared  
__As I lowered you down my heart just jaded  
__In that moment the earth made no sound  
__But you were there  
__You helped me lift my pain into the air_

Her funeral hadn't been much. It was reminiscent of Ari's funeral in fact, the only real difference being that Dr. Martinez and Ella were there this time.

Max had deserved so much more, and, God, he had loved her! He'd never told her though. Not in so many words anyway.

Standing there at Max's grave, it had been all he could think about.

He had loved her, damnit!

A part of him knew, though, that she would always be with the flock. In life she had always put them before herself. Fang didn't see why death should change that.

And knowing that, or maybe just hoping that, did help, in however small an amount.

_And I'll remember you  
__And the things that we used to do  
__And the things that we used to say_

Max. Beautiful, strong, tough Max. She had deserved so much more than she'd ever gotten.

Now she was just a memory. A memory he would carry with him for the rest of his days, however long or short that may be.

And somewhere, somehow, he had to believe that Max still existed and that, as long as the flock was okay, she would be too.

If he could believe that, truly believe it, than he could be okay too. And, yeah, it was still hard, but if Max was all right then he thought he could be too. Eventually.

_If it don't hurt you  
__It won't hurt me  
__It don't hurt me  
__Then it won't hurt you  
__If it don't hurt you  
__It won't hurt me, I know._

**The End.**


End file.
